Stephen,
You speak gently and I agree that terms may differ across fields and at
times I may be more bold in taking leaps where others would not. You could
say I read Whitehead's remarks as an imperative: "Effective knowledge is
professionalized knowledge, supported by a restricted acquaintance with
useful subjects subservient to it. .... It produces minds in a groove. ...
Now to be mentally in a groove is to live in contemplating a given set of
abstractions. The groove prevents straying across country, and the
abstraction abstracts from something to which no further attention is paid.
But there is no groove of abstractions which is adequate for the
comprehension of human life. ... the point the restraint of serious thought
within a groove. The remainder of life is treated superficially, with the
imperfect categories of thought derived from one profession. "Requisites of
Social Progress."(p.197) (1925 Lowell Lectures by Alfred North Whitehead).
Thank you for your comments.
Molly
At 11:59 AM 1/3/03 +0000, Stephen Gourlay wrote:
>Molly
>
>I full agree with you when you say
> > ... It seems to me that we become very territorial
> > and that it would be useful for us to learn what we can from the
> > insights of specialists in other fields.
> >
>
>I could certainly never defend anything I've written if I did not!
>However, I think we need to take great care when crossing boundaries
>(a) not to take the meaning of words in one domain to be the same as
>those in another, (b) not to take too many (or perhaps too easily)
>assumptions from one's own field to apply them to another, and (c)
>always to be aware that all fields, I guess, are subject to debate and
>have differing points of view within them. I'm sure Shlain has some
>interesting things to say and some time I will probably get round to
>buying the book if not reading it since you have drawn our attention to
>it.
>
>Best wishes to all XMCA'ers for a Peaceful New Year.
>
>Stephen
>
>
>Stephen Gourlay, PhD; Principal Lecturer, Director of Doctoral Training,
>Kingston Business School, Kingston University, Kingston Hill, Kingston
>upon Thames, KT2 7LB, UK
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